The present invention is in the field of magnetic tool holders. In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,059, issued to Bosch et al. shows a tool belt having an array of rectangular magnets for holding tools and parts in an easily accessible manner on the front of the belt. This patent mentions attaching the tool-holder to a “magnetically responsive objects or surfaces.” Because of the longitudinal extent of the magnets, however, the belt would not conform along that extent unless the magnets were flexible. Flexible magnets tend to be less powerful than rigid magnets.
Also, published application no. 2004/0173484 discloses a magnetic tool-holder in which a loose array of magnets is sewn into individual pockets. Such a loose array will not tend to provide a powerful enough magnetic force to hold larger tools and to stay on a metal car surface when loaded down with an array of heavy tools and parts. Also, although this application discloses arranging the magnets with random polarization, such random polarization would tend not to produce the maximum magnetic force.